Related: Huawei P8 vs P8 Max: What's the difference?
The chiselled curved edges of the P8 are similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6, while the softly textured metal back of THE PHONE echoes that of the iPhone 5. Huawei hasn’t just taken design cues from its rivals though, it’s also followed the trend different colours with ridiculous names. As a result, the 16GB version P8 is available in Mystic Champagne/Titanium Grey, and a 64GB P8 is available in Prestige Gold and the less ludicrous Carbon Black. Colours may vary by territory, though.
Buy Now: Huawei P8 at Amazon.com from $189
BEST DEALS FOR HUAWEI P8
The power button and volume keys on the right hand side of the P8 are the only physical keys on the P8, and they’re our only real gripe with this phone’s design. The power button is miniscule and is so close to the volume keys that it’s easy to to hit the wrong button.
Related: Huawei P9 specs
A double tap of the bottom volume key opens the camera and takes a picture when THE PHONE screen is off. It’s a good feature, but it would be easier if the power button was larger, further away or on the opposite side of the PHONE.
Yet this small weakness doesn’t detract from what’s otherwise a solid and well-built phone. It’s heavier than the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6, but it’s lighter than the HTC One M9 and looks as good as any of them despite costing nearly half as much.
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HUAWEI P8 – SCREEN
5.2-inch; 1080 x 1920 pixels (Full HD); 424ppi; IPS LCD; Gorilla GLASS 3
The 5.2-inch screen on the Huawei P8 is a touch larger than the one on the Galaxy S6, but the thin bezel means it doesn’t take up too much more space. And, while it isn’t Quad HD like the S6, it’s one of the finest Full HD screens we’ve seen in a phone. It’s big, it’s bright and it’s useable in all lighting conditions.
Huawei’s Emotion UI includes some options for adjusting the P8 screen’s colour temperature and we used it to counter the phone’s apparent natural bias towards warmer tones. The display options in settings OFFER a sliding scale between warm and cold, and we found that nudging the slider one position to the right gave us a more natural colour balance.
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That isn’t to say that this PHONE is particularly bad when it comes to colour reproduction, though. Overall, it does a good job of rendering colours vibrantly, but if you pay attention to Red and Magenta tones, it’s clear there is some oversaturation taking place.
Side-by-side with some of the other flagship phones, the P8 manages to hold its own. Next to the Galaxy S6, the P8 appears to deliver slightly punchier colours, but it can’t match it for detail, deep blacks or clean white tones. Held up next to the HTC One M9, the P8 edges its more expensive rival.
Related: Best Headphones
The P8’s screen looks good at acute VIEWING angles and adapts to changing light conditions well, too. This is one particular area where the P8 really impresses, though it’s by no means the only area – it’s a great screen all round.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
month. It's not as fast or as powerful as that new iPhone 7, but our review reflects how ti goes against the similar iPhone SE.
Why do we have the Apple iPhone 6? Well, back in 2013, despite record sales, the Cupertino brand was heading for a fall. The brand had been trading on the same phone for four years, and something big was needed to keep it current.
So with that, the iPhone 6, and its bigger brother, the iPhone 6 Plus, were born to keep Apple at the sharp end of a market that was starting to lust after powerful, big-screen smartphones with clever and premium design.
- Compare: all the best iPhone 6 deals
The iPhone 6 certainly addresses a number of the problems Apple had developed, coming with a much larger screen (although not dramatically increasing the size of the phone) a boosted processor, better camera, improved battery and, crucially, overhauled design. Much of the ground work that went into the iPhone 6S was done here, with the iPhone 6.
This is the sixth iPhone I've reviewed, and there's a distinct sense that this one is really rather different.
I wrote in 2013 that Apple was becoming more aware that the time when it could define what consumers would buy in the smartphone was ending – and with the 4.7-inch screen, it clearly had to admit defeat in the smaller screen market.
There will be some who will miss that 4-inch screen size, maintaining that they don't want a bigger display on their phone – but nearly all of those people won't have spent any appreciable time with a larger device, and I believe that a good portion of you thinking you need a smaller phone will quickly come to appreciate the power a bigger handset brings, without compromising quality.
Apple's now appeased those longing for a new 4-inch handheld though, with the launch of the iPhone SE. It sports the specs of the iPhone 6S, uses the body of the now-discontinued iPhone 5S and sports a lower price tag than the iPhone 6, giving the latter some tough new competition.
But while the iPhone 6 has answered a lot of the problems I've had with previous iterations of Apple's handsets, there are some issues that still swirled when I handled the phone for the first time – and many of them persist even now that the iPhone 6 has been superseded.
Why did Apple decide to not join the masses with a really high-res screen? Why is the iPhone 6 still one of the most expensive phones on the market? Has Apple done enough to improve the quite dire battery life of previous models, especially at a time when many high-end Android phones are easily chugging through a day's hard use without thirsting for a charger's caress?
Let's take a quick look at the price – and it's not pretty.
At launch you were looking at $649 or £539 for the 16GB version, $750 or £619 for the 64GB option and $850 or £699 for the 128GB model.
That's since dropped to US$549 (£459, AU$929) for the 16GB version and US$649 (£539, AU$1,079) for the 64GB option, with the 128GB handset having been discontinued with the arrival of the iPhone 6S.
That's about as much as you'd pay for a brand new Android flagship just a few months after launch, yet the iPhone 6 is no longer the top model in its range.
Then you've got the iPhone SE which has the same features as the newer iPhone 6S for $150 (£100, AU$250) less than the iPhone 6. You'll have to compromise on screen size, but you could get a better phone for less. Don't forget, the iPhone 7 is rumored to be on its way in September, too.
Design
Let's take a look at the first thing most people will wonder about before picking up the iPhone 6: how will it actually feel in the hand?
This is a big departure for Apple, marking a time when it's admitted that the industrial, sharp design of the last four iPhone models is a little outdated and needs to up the ergonomics to really compete.
Well, with the Apple iPhone 6 we're looking at one of the thinnest and sleekest handsets in the market – still. It's got a strong combination of metal back (which feels exceptionally premium, borrowing bucketloads of design language from the iPad Air) and the way the screen curves into the chassis gives it a slight lozenge feel.
The iPhone 6 looks the business, and at 6.9mm thin it's very nice to hold, though the Samsung Galaxy S6 has since edged it out at 6.8mm thick. I do still feel that phones that push harder on ergonomics are a better choice though – the HTC One M9 bows out at the back and fits in the palm a little better – but that's quibbling. This iPhone just feels really well made.
Apple has always favoured a flatter phone than the rest of the market though, and placed on a desk it looks great. It does feel great in the hand too, but as said others impress more if I'm being hyper-critical.
There's also the issue of the large plastic strips that flow through the top and bottom of the device. Given metal is a nightmare material to try and get radio signal to penetrate, these are clearly there to offset that.
While the plastic does seem to give good signal performance for the most part, it's nothing amazing, and to my eyes they're a little unsightly and ruin the sleek back of the iPhone 6; their presence seems at odds with Apple's design ethos.
The other big design change is to the power button, which has now been moved to the right-hand side of the phone. This makes a lot of sense and, given the phone is now a larger device at 138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm, hitting the top of the handset is a much harder task, so moving the button is the right thing to do.
Like the rest of the exterior buttons, the power key is raised and easy to hit in both left and right hand modes. It's metallic, and crucially doesn't have the same rattle that I criticised on the iPhone 5S.
However, that doesn't mean the metallic keys don't have a little wiggle to them. Running your hand up and down the sides idly will result in you noticing a very slight looseness to the power and volume buttons... I'm in danger of being too critical here, but for the price it's not the sort of thing I expect to see.
The other important design change here is the camera now protrudes slightly on the rear of the phone. It's good to see that happening, as it shows that Apple isn't willing to compromise on camera quality in order to just whack in a thinner phone.
The protrusion is a little worrying in that laying the Apple iPhone 6 down flat on a table could see scratches appearing, but the sapphire glass that covers the lens should ensure that's pretty safe.
The rest of the iPhone 6 is very similar to the iPhone 5S, with the speakers at the bottom flanking the Lightning port. Well, I say speakers: it's just the one speaker, but thanks to the slightly elongated bottom of the phone you won't cover it when holding the phone in landscape orientation.
This was irritating when trying to game or watch a movie without headphones on older iPhones – but this upgrade, combined with the lightness of the iPhone 6, means you won't have a similar problem for the most part, as the hands sit lower and free of the speaker generally.
Sadly the headphone port still resides at the bottom of the iPhone 6, meaning you'll still probably get your phone out of your pocket the wrong way around when listening to music.
Going back to the iPhone 6 after a prolonged spell using the iPhone 6S as a daily driver, it's remarkable how much lighter the older phone feels in the hand. You can feel every one of those extra 14 grams, and it's the one area in which the newer iPhone suffers by comparison.
Let me make one thing very clear though: the Apple iPhone 6 is another iconic handset in terms of design for Apple. It's not the best looking on the market (I'm still giving that title to the HTC One M9), but it's definitely right up there, and for the price I'd expect nothing less.
You can pick up the iPhone 6 in Space Gray (the colour I've had on test here), or the more standard Silver. There's no longer a Gold model available, and nor do you get access to the snazzy Rose Gold colour option that debuted with the iPhone 6S.
galaxy s7 review
hey
here to discuss this awesome phone
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review#MYlIUxbv6EOSE2Pm.99
here to discuss this awesome phone
Awards
- image: http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/awards/tr-editors-choice.png
SUMMARY
OUR SCORE:
USER SCORE:
PROS
- Stunning looks
- Great camera experience
- microSD slot and IP68 water resistance
- Glorious display
CONS
- Fingerprint magnet
- TouchWiz still has some quirks
- Poor speakers
KEY FEATURES
- 5.1-inch, quad-HD display
- 3,000mAh battery
- 12MP camera
- Fast and wireless charging
- MicroSD
- Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
- 4GB RAM
- 5MP selfie camera
- Exynos 8890 processor
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Review Price: £569.00
WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7?
To use a tired cliche, Samsung has had a year of two halves. After the release of both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, things were looking strong. It had a phone that was better than the HTC 10, better than the Huawei P9 and it’s still better than the iPhone 7.
But then the exploding Galaxy Note 7 landed and Samsung took a bit of a hit. Is it enough to make you think twice about buying a Samsung device?
In a word, no. The Galaxy S7 is still the best phone we’ve reviewed this year. Maybe the Google Pixel phone will have something to say about that though?
Video: Check out our review of the Galaxy S7
Related: Samsung Galaxy S8
SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 – DESIGN
After the massive, and much needed, change in design direction Samsung took with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in 2015, all rumours pointed to things staying pretty much the same for the Galaxy S7.
Well, it’s not like Apple, HTC or Sony make drastic changes to their industrial design every year.
And that’s exactly the case here. Place the Galaxy S7 next to the S6 and you’d be hard pushed to instantly pick which one is which. Frankly, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The S6 was already one of the best-looking phones around, and the Galaxy S7 follows suit.
Both the front and back are covered in Gorilla Glass 4, while a metal rim snakes in between. Two volume buttons sit on one side, with a lock/standby switch on the other. It’s a clean look, with the back free from any markings aside from a Samsung logo.
The camera lens now sits just about flush with the glass body too. This might seem a small change, but it makes a big difference. I can now tap out an email with the phone flat on my desk without it jumping and rocking from side to side.
Related: Best smartphone 2016
There is one notable design change on the back – the sides now curve ever so slightly, just like they did on the larger Galaxy Note 5, and it makes a huge change to how the Galaxy S7 feels. While the S6 felt harsh and rigid, the Galaxy S7 slips softly into my palm. It’s so much more ergonomic and makes picking it up off a flat surface much easier.
And the way the sides almost melt into the glass just looks damn cool. Good job, Samsung.
It’s an absolute fingerprint magnet, though. After a few minutes of use, the entire back becomes a grubby mess that needs wiping down with a microfibre cloth.
Along the top is the Nano SIM tray, which now holds a microSD slot, plus a microphone. The bottom houses the headphone socket, another microphone, a speaker and a micro USB port for charging.
That speaker is one of the few missteps on this phone. It’s downward-facing, gets easily blocked by my hands when playing a game and it sounds tinny and distorted at high volume. I guess front-facing speakers weren’t included so the screen surround could be kept minimal, but it’s still a disappointment when a speaker sounds this bad.
It had been suggested that Samsung would make a big switch to the new, reversible USB-C connector that’s already being used on the Nexus 6P, OnePlus 2 and LG G5, but it hasn’t.
To be honest, USB–C is more of a hindrance than a help at the minute. You can’t use any of the cables you’ve picked up over the years and it doesn’t necessarily mean faster charging. It does mean the S7 isn’t quite so future proof, though.
The front again has a clean look about it. The elongated home button still sits under the display, and it still juts out ever so slightly, rather than being concave like the iPhone’s. For me, this is a plus – it feels better pressing the Galaxy S7’s home button than the iPhone 6S’s – but a couple of the TrustedReviews team think otherwise. They’re wrong, of course, but it’s interesting how such a small design choice can split people.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review#MYlIUxbv6EOSE2Pm.99
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